4
The Norman conquest is an important watershed event in English history for a number of reasons. The conquest linked England more closely with Continental Europe through the introduction of a Norman aristocracy, thereby lessening Scandinavian influence.

5
It created one of the most powerful monarchies in Europe and engendered a sophisticated governmental system. The conquest changed the English language and culture. It set the stage for rivalry with France, which would continue intermittently until the nineteenth century. It remains the last successful military conquest of England.

6
There was an Anglo-Saxon rebellion against the Normans every year until Between Durham and York not a single house was left standing, and it took a century for the north to recover.

7
By 1086 only two of the greater landlords and only two bishops were Saxon. William gave the Saxon lands to his Norman nobles. Over 4,000 Saxon landlords were replaced by 200 Norman ones. Of all the farmland of England he gave half to the Norman nobles, a quarter to the Church, and kept a fifth himself.

8
William organised his English kingdom according to the feudal system but kept the Saxon system of sheriffs, and used these as a balance to local nobles.

9
A feudal society is one where: Land is held in exchange for service. Obedience is rendered in exchange for protection. Society is hierarchically ordered with a military class of highly-trained and expensively-equipped warriors supported by a mass of peasants who provide labour and are tied to the land.

16
By 1086 William wanted to know exactly who owned which piece of land, and how much it was worth. He needed this information so that he could plan his economy, find out how much was produced and how much he could ask in tax.

17
The Domesday Book still exists, and gives us an extraordinary amount of information about England at this time. There are two Domesday volumes, and they cover most parts of England, though London was omitted.

18
In the England of Domesday nine people out of ten lived in rural settlements. only one in twenty-five lived in a town of over two thousand inhabitants and nearly half of those were Londoners.

19
In the England of Domesday a number of craftsmen such as masons, smiths and weavers, and a few officials, lived in the farming communities. the population was densest in the east of the country, and particularly thin in the north, and there were heavily wooded areas where few people lived at all.

20
Governmental System Even before the Normans arrived, the Anglo-Saxons had one of the most sophisticated governmental systems in Western Europe: division into administrative units (shires); heavy use of written documentation; permanent physical location of government and treasury (Winchester).

21
This form of government was handed over to the Normans and grew even stronger. The Normans centralized the autonomous shire system. Systems of accounting grew in sophistication. A government accounting office, called the exchequer, was established by Henry I; from 1150 onward this was located in Westminster.

22
In every possible way the king always "had his hand in his subject's pocket".

23
Changes in taxation between 1066 and 1300 In 1130 well over half of Henry I's money came from his own land, one-third from his feudal vassals in rights and fines, and only one-seventh from taxes. One hundred and fifty years later, over half of Edward I's money came from taxes, but only one-third came from his land and only one-tenth from his feudal vassals.

31
John was an unpopular king. He was greedy. In 1204 the French king invaded Normandy and the English nobles lost their lands there. John had failed to carry out his duty to them as Duke of Normandy. He had taken their money but he had not protected their land.

32
In 1215 John hoped to recapture Normandy. He called on his lords to fight for him, but they no longer trusted him. They marched to London, where they were joined by angry merchants. Outside London at Runnymede, a few miles up the river, John was forced to sign a new agreement.

33
Magna Carta Libertatum (the Great Charter of Freedoms) Kings are not above the law. King could not collect any new tax without the consent of the Great Council. King could not violate due process of law.

34
In fact Magna Carta gave no real freedom to the majority of people in England. The nobles who wrote it and forced King John to sign it had no such thing in mind. They had one main aim: to make sure John did not go beyond his rights as feudal lord.

35
Magna Carta marks a clear stage in the collapse of English feudalism. Feudal society was based on links between lord and vassal. At Runnymede the nobles were not acting as vassals but as a class. They established a committee of twenty-four lords to make sure John kept his promises. That was not a "feudal" thing to do. In addition, the nobles were acting in co- operation with the merchant class of towns.